For Immediate Release
ED TORRES FROM THE NEW 101.9 DAWG FM WINS THE BLUES BOOSTER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Toronto, ON January 5, 2010 -- The Toronto Blues Society has announced the recipient of the Blues Booster of the Year award, a very special Maple Blues Award honouring outstanding contribution to the Canadian Blues industry.
This years Blues Booster of the Year award goes to Ed Torres, one of the founders of all blues radio station 101.9 DAWG FM. “It’s a great honour to receive this award on behalf of the staff of The New 101.9 DAWG FM. The real boost for the Blues and all of the Canadian Artists that make it their life’s work starts June 1, when we light up our full service commercial Blues FM station in Ottawa. There’s a real buzz in the Ottawa radio scene, advertisers are excited and the applications and CD’s are flooding in,” said Torres.
What was to be Canada’s only all blues station based in Ottawa and Gatineau, DAWG FM was licenced by the CRTC in August 2008, only to have the licence sent back for reconsideration. Torres was instrumental in launching an exhaustive and expensive year-long campaign to have the licence upheld and to pave the way for all Blues radio formats across Canada.
In August 2009, the CRTC re-issued the licence for DAWG FM and the station is set for launch in the summer of 2010. “We were very pleased to get the licence re-issued by the CRTC. The appeal of the first licence was emotional and exhausting. It’s unfortunate that we’ve been delayed almost a full year but as it was explained to us by countless politicos that we met along the way: democracy isn’t always efficient but in the end it works. The excitement of our June 1st launch date is building hourly. The CRTC has acknowledged that Blues is not just an essential North American art form but that it can be the basis of a financially viable commercial FM station. This paves the way for the first Blues radio station in Canada,”
Ed Torres will receive the Blues Booster of the Year Award at the 13th annual Maple Blues Awards gala on January 18 in Toronto.
What: The Maple Blues Awards
Where: Koerner Hall - The Royal Conservatory (273 Bloor Street W., Toronto)
When: Monday, January 18, 2010, 7:00PM
Website: http://www.torontobluessociety.com
Tickets: $20.00 - $28.00 available at www.rcmusic.ca or 416.408.0208 
